A drugs gang has been sentenced to a total of 25 years for attempting to smuggle £40,000 of cocaine into Leeds-Bradford International Airport.
The gang-of-four, three Somali men and a Portuguese woman, were jailed on Wednesday for the plot to smuggle 380g of the drug from Equador.
Their plan was foiled when officers from the UK Border Agency at the Yeadon airport caught drugs mule Lina Isabel Alves De Aguiar, 34, as she entered the UK on July 19 last year.
She had arrived via Amsterdam and had the cocaine hidden in her luggage, Leeds Crown Court heard.
An international investigation led to the arrest of three other gang members, all of whom were involved in the plot.
They were Ahmad Jumbe Darish, 27, a failed asylum seeker, Abdullah Omary, 28, both of Coventry, and Ahmed Farrah-Awad, 34, of Leicester.
Both Omary and Farrah-Awad were living in the UK legally.
Alves De Aguiar and Darish pleaded guilty to the offences in December last year. Omary and Farrah-Awad were found guilty following a trial in May.
Ahmed Farrah-Awad, who was central to the overall organisation of the scheme, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years as was Abdullah Omary. Ahmad Jumbe Darish and Lina Isabel Alves De Aguiar, who had previously pleaded guilty, both received five years.
The court heard how Alves De Aguiar had acted as the courier, with Darish, Omary and Farrah-Awad acting as her minders to and from the airport. Once Alves De Aguiar arrived in Ecuador Omary was involved in the transfer of money to allow her to buy the drugs.
Malcolm Bragg, assistant director for the UK Border Agency, welcomed the sentences handed down. He said: “As this case shows, those individuals behind the illegal drugs trade are unscrupulous and will readily exploit our communities out of pure greed.”
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